Nowruz Dishes: Samanu, Haft-Seen’s Vital Component

Iranian individuals serve conventional dishes akin to Samanu on the preliminary days of Nowruz, the Persian New Yr.

Yearly on March 20 or 21, Iranian individuals rejoice the start of the Persian New Yr, referred to as Nowruz. Similar to different individuals all over the world, individuals in Iran cook dinner their very own conventional meals to mark the arrival of spring and the start of their new 12 months.

In keeping with a Farsi report by Sarzamin-e Man journal, among the many principal conventional dishes ready and served on the eve or first day of Nowruz are Samanu (an Iranian candy paste made fully from germinated wheat), Sabzi Polo Ba Mahi (a combination of rice and chopped herbs with fried fish), Kaak (a pastry and memento of the western Iranian province of Kermanshah), and Reshteh Polo (skinny noodles with rice).

What follows is a short historic background of Samanu and why it are served on the eve or first day of Nowruz in addition to the recipe and directions for cooking it:

Candy and Historic

Samanu is without doubt one of the gadgets included within the conventional Iranian Haft-Seen (actually seven Ss), a table-top association of seven symbolic gadgets [the first letter of which is ‘S’] historically displayed at Nowruz. Samanu is nice, scrumptious and nutritious, and extremely popular amongst Iranians.

The primary paperwork or proof regarding the making of Samanu, reportedly, date again to the Sassanid Empire (224-651 AD). These proof and paperwork affirm that Samanu has all the time been a spiritual meals and made for a selected ritual. Numerous the anthropologists who’ve studied the meals merchandise from a spiritual viewpoint preserve that the spiritual dimensions and features of the phases concerned in making Samanu gained better significance following the entry of Islam into Iran, notably, through the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722).

The recipe of the comestible has been topic to quite a few small modifications. Most likely, the recipe used immediately has been handed down from Qajar period (1785 to 1925). Some 2,000 years have elapsed since Iranian first made Samanu, and the meals has saved being served as the primary dish in lots of Iranian spiritual in addition to conventional ceremonies, akin to Nowruz. For the reason that course of of constructing Samanu is sort of time-taking, many purchase it ready-made. Nonetheless, if sufficient endurance is proven, the traditional meals merchandise will be ready at house utilizing a easy recipe.

Recipe:

Substances: Wheat grain seeds (one kilogram), whole-wheat flour (three kilograms), nuts (any desired quantity or form)

Directions:

To organize Samanu, primarily, the wheat sprouts’ sap is required to be extracted. After being winnowed, the wheat grain seeds needs to be poured in a bowl filled with water to be soaked.

Usually, this can take as much as three to 4 days. After being soaked, the grain seeds needs to be enfolded in a clear fabric to sprout in three days. Throughout this era, grain seeds are required to be put in a darkish and heat place. The material additionally must be wetted [preferably with cold water] for 2 or 3 times a day to hurry up the method of sprouting. It takes roughly one week for grain seeds to turn into prepared for sap extraction.

After sprouting, the grain seeds needs to be washed and, then, mashed for so long as they flip into paste. They will even be floor. The paste, then, needs to be sifted to extract its sap. To speed up sap extraction, the paste will be well-mixed with some water earlier than sifting. Then, the paste needs to be strained [through a sieve] till its sap is extracted. Nice care needs to be taken to extract all of the sap, as it’s what sweetens Samanu.

Subsequent, the flour needs to be poured in a inventory pot and the sap should be added to it. Stirring is required to resolve the flour within the sap and switch it into a skinny liquid. Then the inventory pot needs to be placed on the range and be heated till the fluid [in it] boils and progressively turns into thicker. Whereas heating, the fluid is required to be stirred continuously, in any other case, it is going to follow the underside of the inventory pot, burns and turns into Halva (a dense, candy confection served throughout the Center East and plenty of different locations).

When the water of Samanu was drained via evaporation, somewhat bit extra heating might be required. Including some chilly water to it at this stage will make it thinner and look brighter. Following that, Samanu is required to be poured right into a bowl and be heated in an oven, or on a fuel range, with a sluggish flame for half-hour till it’s ready. Samanu will be served in any desired dish or ornamented with chopped pistachios and almonds.